Justice Thompson was appointed to the Supreme Court at the age of 42 by then-Governor Grant Sawyer. At the time, he was the youngest judge ever appointed to a state high court in the country.

He served as chief justice for several terms and won re-election three times. After his retirement from the bench, Justice Thompson taught law for two years at Old College School of Law in Reno, which has since closed.

"He was known as one of the most intellectual members of the court and a lucid and concise writer," said Washoe District Judge Brent Adams. "He was a model of what a jurist should be."

The Reno native was a 1940 graduate of the University of Nevada, Reno and a 1943 graduate of Stanford Law School.

His brother, Bruce R. Thompson, was a U.S. District Court judge in Reno. He died in 1992.